With Lion Apple has brought some great new features to the Mac. In this post I have put together some of the most essential new keyboard shortcuts that I think make using Lion so much easier and fun to use.
Full screen view
Lion brought Full Screen view to most apps to give you a clutter free working environment. Entering full screen mode will create a ‘space’ in Mission Control for each window you put into full screen.
To enter full screen view in any app that supports this feature hit ctrl, cmd and F
Accents Menu
The english language doesn’t really include any accented words but other languages do, Unfortunately Mac OS X has never really made it easy to accent a letter before but Lion has simplified it, Now accenting a letter is easy with this simple shortcut.
To access the accents menu in any app place your cursor over the text then hold down the letter key you want to accent and the accent menu bubble will appear above the letter, Where you can choose from the accent options available for that letter.
Dictionary QuickLook Preview
Looking up a word in dictionary has never been so easy, With QuickLook in Lion you don’t even have to open up the Dictionary app.
To view the QuickLook preview of a word in dictionary highlight a word in any app and hit ctrl, cmd and D
Mission Control
Mission control merged some of the best features of Mac OS X. With this merge comes some new shortcuts to make it really quick and easy to navigate your open windows on the Mac.
To Enter Mission Control hit F3 or ctrl and the up arrow key.
To move between Spaces and Full Screen apps from the Desktop and in Mission Control hit ctrl and the back and forward arrow keys
To enter Mission Control ‘current app view’ hit ctrl and F3
To move between apps in Mission Control \current app view’ hit ctrl and F3 then hit shift
To QuickLook a window in Mission Control just hover you mouse over a window then hit the space bar
Reading List
Reading List in Safari was introduced by Apple to make it easy to bookmark links to ‘read later’ these shortcuts will make adding content to your reading list a snap.
To add the current page in safari to your reading list hit cmd, shift and D
To add any link on a webpage in safari to your reading list hold down shift and click on the link you want to add to your reading list.
To view your reading list in safari hit cmd, shift and L.
Launchpad
By default Launchpad is not assigned a keyboard shortcut in Lion, Apple has favored using gestures to enter and exit launchpad. Using a trackpad to enter Launchpad you just pinch with your thumb and three fingers and to exit just spread your thumb and three fingers.
But you can assign a keyboard shortcut, By following these steps.
Open System Preferences
Go to the Keyboard preference pane then click on ‘Keyboard Shortcuts’
In the left hand column choose ‘Launchpad & Dock’
Then in the right hand column you will see two options, Choose ‘Show Launchpad’
Now to assign a shortcut:
Next to ‘Show Launchpad’ you will see an empty space, Click in this empty space and a text box will appear now simply type the shortcut you want to use.
Emoji
Emoji has been on the iPhone and iPad for a while now and with Lion Apple has brought it over to the Mac in the form of a new Font called ‘Apple Color Emoji’ But you can’t actually use emoji without opening and using the Special Characters picker in Mac OS X.
To access the Special Characters Picker you first have to enable it.
You can do this by following these steps.
Open System Preferences
Go to the Keyboard preference pane then click on the‘ Keyboard’ Tab
You will see an option at the bottom called ‘Show Keyboard & Character Viewers in menu bar’ make sure the box next to this option is checked.
You will then see this icon  appear in the Menu Bar
From here you can click on ‘Show Character Viewer’
Once the Character Viewer have opened you will find Emoji in the left hand column.
Other Useful Tips
Enable User Library Folder
By default Mac OS X Lion hides the user Library folder from view in Finder. Here is a really easy way to get it back.
Open ‘Terminal’ and type the following command
chflags nohidden ~/Library
Then press enter
(You can also find your user Library folder in the Go menu in Finder by clicking on Go in the menu bar and hitting the option key ‘Library’ will then appear in the list)